实验基础

Risk assessment has become increasingly important as a tool in assessing risks from food-borne pathogens. There are many methodologies that may be used when constructing a risk assessment model, and there are many methodological issues, which are left to the risk assessor’s choice. A number of ...

Food-borne diseases include infections caused by bacteria, parasites, and viruses. Each year, millions of persons experience food-borne illness, although only a fraction seek medical care, and an even smaller number submit laboratory specimens. To monitor the impact of these food-bo ...

Although light microscopy fell out of favor as a research tool in prokaryotic biology in the 1980s, advances in the reagents available for cell labeling (staining) and in the user-friendliness of microscopes were underpinning a revolution in eukaryotic cell biology. The development of ep ...

Over the past few decades major improvements have been made in the treatment of cancer patients. Despite the success obtained with several new classes of drugs, resistance of cancer cells still remains a major hurdle to cure patients (1). Multidrug resistance (MDR) is one of the best characteriz ...

Bladder cancer is the fifth most common malignancy, demonstrated by the approx 52,900 patients that will be diagnosed in the United States in 1996 (1). Around 15–20% of these patients will be characterized by muscle invasion or node posmve disease The standard therapy for muscle invasive disease ...

Malignant melanoma is an increasingly important clinical problem in the United States, because the incidence of cutaneous malignant melanoma has been increasing significantly in recent years (1,2) Despite the use of cancer chemotherapy and immunotherapy for treatment against t ...

Current advances in the understanding of the genetic mechanisms of carcinogenesis and manipulation of gene expression have introduced gene therapy as a new strategy for cancer therapeutics. Recently, gene modulation using specific oligonucleotides have been developed and def ...

Our laboratory has investigated the cleavage activity of an-anti-c-erb-B-2 ribozyme. The c-erb-B-2 proto-oncogene (also called HER-2/neu) encodes a 185 kDa transmembrane tyrosine kinase-type receptor that is homologous with the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) (1,2) The pu ...

Mutations in the K-ras oncogene and mutations or deletions in the tumor suppressor gene p53 are the two most prevalent oncogenetic alterations in human lung cancer. Ras mutations occur primarily in lung adenocarcinomas and small numbers of large cell undifferentiated and squamous cell l ...

The undisputed success of detection assays based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been largely due to its rapidity in comparison to many conventional diagnostic methods. For instance, detection and identification of mycobacteria, chlamydiae, mycoplasmas, brucellae, a ...

Diagnostic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is an extremely powerful rapid method for diagnosis of microbial infections and genetic diseases, as well as for detecting microorganisms in environmental and food samples. However, the usefulness of diagnostic PCR is limited, in part, by the p ...

Food-borne zoonotic bacteria, transferred from animals to food products, are a major concern in modern food production and, consequently, for human health (1). Accordingly, there is a need to control the entire food chain, from infections at the herd level to the consumer, through screening and c ...

Among molecular biological methods targeting nucleic acids, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has become the most popular diagnostic method in human and veterinary medicine, as well as in microbiological food testing (1,2).

Q fever is caused by Coxiella burnetii, an organism widely found in nature and responsible for infections in arthropods, pets, domestic and wild animals, as well as humans (1,2). Conventional diagnosis of Q fever is mainly based on serological tests, such as immunofluorescence, enzyme-linked ...

It is only in recent years that Listeria monocytogenes has become regarded as a significant food-borne pathogen. Interest in the organism arose due to several food-borne outbreaks in the early 1980s of listeriosis. The high mortality rate associated with the illness prompted widespread p ...

When the Japanese microbiologist Shiga discovered a bacterium causing dysentery in humans in 1898, the organism was designated Shigella dysenteriae type 1. The toxin produced by the germ was found to have enterotoxic and neurotoxic properties. Later on, it became clear that, in most countr ...

Leptospirosis, which is caused by pathogenic spirochetes of the genus Leptospira, is an important zooanthroponosis, both from a clinical and economic standpoint. The wide variety of potential disease reservoirs, coupled with the ability of Leptospira to survive for long periods in so ...

There are a large variety of bacteria that are pathogenic for animals, including many opportunistic pathogens normally residing in the environment. Among these diverse veterinary pathogens, mycobacteria are highly significant, particularly for farmed animal species, as many a ...

More than 20 different species of mollicutes, most of them belonging to the genus Mycoplasma, have been identified from ruminant hosts to date. While a considerable part of this group is conceived to be of minor epidemiological relevance, it contains some important pathogenic agents that have ...

More than 20 mycoplasma species have been isolated and characterized from avian sources (1). Only four avian mycoplasmas species are known to cause economic losses in commercial poultry production. Mycoplasma gallisepticum (Mg) infection commonly causes chronic respiratory di ...